Time to take control
by panman2k
Summary: Ranma realizes he must take control of his life, and starts taking steps.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this. They belong to the great mind of Rumiko Takahashi and I'm just borrowing them for entertainment. I make no money off of this.

"One thousand two hundred and forty-three... one thousand two hundred forty-four... one thousand two hundred forty-five." Ranma said through clenched teeth. He was upside down, his legs straight up in the air and doing pushups on two fingers. Deciding that was enough he lowered himself down and sat in lotus position, commencing a set of breathing exercises to focus his mind.

Ever since the wedding fiasco he'd been restless, he was frustrated, angry and confused. He was angry at his father for getting him in this mess, he was angry at his other fiances for showing up, he was frustrated with himself for lacking the courage to tell Akane how he really felt. And he was confused by Akane's willingness to go with the wedding. She'd been vehemently opposed to the engagement since they met, although sometimes they did get close, but those moments were easily forgotten when they'd have misunderstandings due to a purple headed Amazon glomp which would prompt Akane to send him into near orbit with her favorite mallet.

As he sank deeper into his meditation he tried to let go of his emotions, trusting his chi to guide him to peacefulness. His breathing became even as the sweat on his face cooled the breeze in the dojo. _"Something has to change" _he thought to himself. _"I need to find out how she feels, I need to get rid of Shampoo, and Ukyo. I never considered Kodachi as a real option..." _He opened his eyes and looked around the dojo, _"This place feels empty somehow, perhaps it's time for me to get my mastery and take on some students." _

Feeling better now that he'd made a few decisions he stood up and brushed off his clothes, he walked to the door of the dojo, opened it and bowed towards the dojo before exiting pulling the door shut as he did.

That evening at dinner when Genma tried to steal his food Ranma didn't even give him a chance. Placing his bowl out of reach Ranma walked around the table grabbed his father by his gi and launched him over the Tendo wall, pointedly ignoring his pathetic fathers screams of protest. The Tendos of course just acted like nothing happened, although Akane did seem to be having trouble keeping a slight grin off her face at the display.

Finishing his dinner without even asking for seconds Ranma stood up, "Akane, can I speak to you when you're finished?" he asked politely. Not bothering to look up from her food she responded with a simple "Sure."

"Thank you for the excellent meal Kasumi." Ranma said, before politely bowing and stepping outside.

"Where the hell is that ungrateful son of mine?!" shouted Genma as he slammed shut the front door behind him. "Here I sacrifice to train him and for him to just up and..." his complaints died on his lips as his nose caught the scent of his unfinished dinner. He put the incident out of his mind as his stomach growled, the boy could wait, his stomach could not!

"Thank you Kasumi, it was great!" exclaimed Akane as she jumped up from the table, she ran out the door following where Ranma had left a few minutes previously.

Stepping outside she noted it was a beautiful night, the sun had not yet set all the way and was still an orange ball sinking into the horizon. The sky turned from orange to a pretty purple color with a few random stars adding to the beauty of the scene where it got darker. She looked around the yard and spotted Ranma and her breath caught in her throat. He was in the middle of a kata, his graceful fluid movements nearly as beautiful as the evening sky surrounding them. _I wish Nabiki would photograph stuff like this instead of just perverted pictures all the time!_ She thought to herself watching him, she realized at this point she was staring but just didn't care. She sat down and watched him patiently waiting for him to finish.

A few minutes later he finished up the kata, bringing his hands down in front of his solar plexus exhaling sharply. He then bowed to the setting sun and shook himself off allowing his muscles to relax. Smiling gently he turned around, "Hi Akane" he said, then his heart started racing when he saw the beautiful smile that was gracing her lips.

"Can you teach me that kata sometime?" she asked, looking up at him with longing in her eyes.

"Yeah, sure 'Kane" he said nervously. "Hey, listen ifeellikeweneedtotalkaboutth eweddingtoomanythinghappened toofastandthingsgotoutofcont rolandI'msorry!"

"What?"

"I'm sorry Akane." Ranma said "I'm sorry for everything, I'm sorry for the ruined wedding, I'm sorry my father is an idiot that engaged me to someone new every time his stomach growled, I'm sorry for Shampoo, I'm sorry for Kodachi, I'm sorry that our wedding was ruined. And I'm sorry that you had to get engaged to someone like me. I know you never wanted this in the first place, perhaps if we called it.."

"Don't!" Akane said sharply, "Don't you dare try to back out now!" She grabbed onto his red shirt and pulled herself up to him tears at the corners of her eyes.

"I admit I didn't want to be engaged" She said quietly "I'm not sorry for being engaged to you, although I wish we could have made that decision on our own. I'm sorry for my temper, when I see those bimbos hanging off of you I get so jealous!" Akane covered her mouth realizing her slip up.

"You get jealous?" Ranma said, "All this time I thought.."

"Can we be honest with each other?" Akane asked tentatively "I mean no holds barred, completely honest for just a moment." she waited until Ranma nodded.

"Okay. Ranma I.." she paused, looking into his eyes "I.." her heart was racing and she felt like she was about to start shaking "I.. I.. Iloveyou!"

He blinked, he looked at her, he blinked again. "Huh?"

She sighed "I said," she said trying to slow down "I love you."

"I love you too tomboy," he said kindly in return "I think I've been in love with you this whole time and I've just been too stupid to admit it to myself till.. you know"

She did know, it was no surprise to her that Ranma didn't want to talk about Saffron. Even if the guy did come back to life Ranma still had to live with knowing he'd been pushed to the point that taking a life seemed like a necessity.

"So what now?" she said, still holding him close.

"I've wanted to do something for a long time now," he said as his fingers grabbed her chin, gently tilting her head up. She gladly pressed herself up to him allowing him to kiss her. After a few seconds they both parted for air.

"Wow" they said at the same time, then they grinned at each other and started laughing.

Later that night they were on the roof of the Tendo house talking quietly.

"I have to get rid of the rest of these suitors, no I mean WE have to get rid of the rest of these suitors."

"Agreed."

"I've also been thinking, this dojo is very empty, perhaps we need to start getting some students."

"Perhaps you need to train your first" Akane said punching Ranma in the shoulder gently "now that we know how we feel about each other will you train me seriously? When we do take over the dojo I want to teach as your equal."

Ranma sighed, still against hitting girls, but reluctantly accepting the necessity for training Akane. "Agreed."

Suddenly he sat up "I got it!" he said excitedly, "we only have a few weeks left of school, after we get done I say we go on a training trip, just the two of us for the whole summer. That will give me enough time to get you well caught up, and perhaps we can learn some new tricks, and when we come back we'll have a good plan to get rid of the pests"

Akane nodded liking this idea, agreed on what would be happening they shared a few more gentle and curious kisses before Ranma carried Akane downstairs so they could go talk to the family about the plans for the upcoming training trip.

First fanfic, I know which way I want it to go and if I keep writing it this will eventually most likely end up being a crossover by the time I write a sequel. For this story so far my plan is to straighten out the lives of Akane, Ranma and co.. Please R&R thanks!


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I still own nothing! All characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi, I'm just playing in her sandbox :)

Thank you to the reviewers so far, just to let you know, there will still be conflict. I just feel that after Jusendo and the failed wedding they've really played around long enough. Not everything is gonna be flowers and sunshine though, they still have their own insecurities to deal with, numerous suitors, annoying fathers, Nabiki and all the other chaos that just seems to randomly follow Ranma around.

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Ranma woke up earlier than usual the next morning, the sun had not even risen, looking out the window he saw a few clouds scattered randomly throughout the pink morning sky. He stood up, yawned and stretched, and grabbed his jacket before opening his window and hopping down into the backyard where he commenced his morning stretches. During his stretches he couldn't help a smile from appearing on his face as he remembered the events of last night. _"I love you." _He'd said it to Akane, and she admitted that she felt the same, he began performing a kata confident that no matter how difficult things got he could handle it, knowing that Akane loved him made it all worth it.

A frown crossed his face as he considered the other fiances, and his father, and the idiots at school. _Damn_ he thought, _things are never gonna be simple for us. _He glanced up from his kata to see Akane stretching in preparation for her morning run. _How did she ever believe me when I called her sexless? _He thought to himself, _wow!_

Akane, feeling his eyes on her, turned to look at him questioningly. He blushed and went back to work on his kata, leaving Akane slightly confused as she shrugged and took off out the gate on her run.

Remembering his promise to train her Ranma finished his kata quickly before hopping on top of the wall and running to catch up to Akane.

Akane had just passed her one mile marker when a figure dropped from a light pole in front of her, as the figure was dropping she hopped back going into a defensive stance. Noticing it was just Ranma she lowered her guard, "What are you doing?" She asked, " I still gotta finish my run jerk."

"Not without these," her replied walking up to her, pulling his hands out from behind his back he revealed two very heavy looking anvils "now we just gotta tie these on to your ankles" he pulled some rope out of his pocket and tied the anvils to her legs before she could even let out a protest, "there we go, now the normal three miles won't cut it, I expect six out of you, now go!"

_The nerve of that! _Protest dying on her lips, she glared at Ranma and took off, although at a much slower pace due to the extra weight added. As she disappeared around the corner she heard him shout from behind her, "I'm gonna make sure pops doesn't finish up all the food, I'ma set aside some breakfast for you tomboy, but hurry up!".

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Half an hour later Akane dragged herself in through the front door, sweat was dripping off her face and she looked like she was about to collapse at any moment. Ranma surprised her again by popping up next to her holding what looked to be like a bundle of clothing in his hands. "After you shower and get some breakfast in ya we'll head to school tomboy." he said, "I got these a while back and I think you should wear these instead of your uniform for the time being so we can train you appropriately."

Too exhausted to bother with a verbal reply she just nodded, grabbed the offered clothes and dragged herself through the living room and into the bath where she sat in the furo for a few minutes to let her muscles relax.

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After Akane had showered and eaten Ranma and Akane both left the house to go to school. Surprisingly nobody had commented on any of their weird behavior.

What Ranma and Akane didn't know is that Kasumi had forced the rest of the Tendo household into a secret meeting after the failed wedding and told them, in a manner that left no room for argument, that they would be leaving Ranma and Akane alone. Genma and Soun both repressed shudders remembering Kasumi breaking her calm facade to shout at them _"Can't you see that you're just tearing them apart?! They could have gotten together a long time ago if you jerks wouldn't keep butting in! If you want them together than mind your own business! And you Nabiki!" _after that Kasumi had launched into a long narrative telling Nabiki off for selling pictures of family for profit. Kasumi had wrapped the whole thing up by promising not to cook or clean anymore if anyone in the house tried to harass either Ranma or Akane. So despite any temptation to interfere, the idea of not having any more of Kasumi's delicious cooking was so far keeping them all in line.

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Akane was dressed in a silk Chinese Kung Fu uniform, very similar to the one Ranma always wore, with a few exceptions. Her jacket was black with a yellow dragon embroidered around it, and her pants were the same. Ranma was walking backwards on the fence holding Akane's hands as she learned how to balance on the fence. "I'm gonna let go of your hands" Ranma warned, seeing Akane's nod he let go and watched as she took her first few steps on her own. A smile started appearing on his face till he heard the tell tale ring of a bike bell. _Uh oh_ he thought as the bike knocked him off the fence sending a purple haired bimbo missile into him.

"Get off me!" He shouted in frustration.

"Nihao, husband! We go on date now?" Shampoo asked, not even paying attention to Akane who was starting to anger and losing her balance up on the fence.

Ranma pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration and pried Shampoo off of him. "What makes ya think I wanna go on a date with ya?" he shouted at her, "With what happened at the wedding I don't even want to look at you right now!"

"You no marry pervert tomboy," Shampoo said snidely "you already married to too too beautiful Amazon warrior!" Noticing Akane falling off the fence she added "Hmph, pervert girl too stupid to even balance on fence, she no make good wife Ranma, can't even cook!" she exclaimed grabbing handing him a picnic basket that was attached to her bike. "Shampoo make you too to delicious combination Ramen, Shampoo go now, have more deliveries to make!" she shouted as she rode off on her bike leaving a giant cloud of dust behind her.

"Ranmaaa.." Akane said seething in anger.

"Akane, please calm down, as you saw I didn't request for her to do that. Please don't hit me right now, let's look at the upside."

"What upside?" Akane asked through clenched teeth.

"We got free lunch, courtesy of the Nekohanten," he said holding up the picnic basket "we'll probably hafta borrow an extra bowl from the cafeteria, plus I forgot to grab lunch when we ran out of the house."

Akane seemed to think about what he said for a moment before deflating, "I'm sorry, I can't help getting mad when I see Shampoo" Akane said "she's not a sexless tomboy like me, she's got a body any woman would kill for, and she can cook amazing food, while everything I cook makes you sick, how can I compete with her?"

"You don't have to Akane" Ranma said gently "you've already won. Now let's get to school before that old lady comes out to.." _splash _"never mind." the now female Ranma said with a sigh as Akane suppressed a giggle.

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The school day went by pretty smoothly for the most part, aside from a small incident between Ranma and Kuno which ended up with the latter being launched into near orbit and making a hilarious Kuno shaped impression on the sidewalk leading up to the school. Nabiki of course collected huge winnings from that little incident. The students at the school were shocked when they saw Ranma was actually doing his work and not sleeping in class today, a couple of the more paranoid students making end of the world prophecies.

They went home similar to the way they went to school, Akane learning to walk on the fence and Ranma giving her vocal support and watching her to make sure she was learning to do it properly. When they got to the house Akane started setting up bricks to smash, but Ranma came and gently pried the bricks away from her and threw them away.

"What are you doing?" she said glaring at him "I need to train."

"Unless you plan on fighting against a house smashing bricks isn't going to help you anymore. We both already know you can smash bricks easily, that's enough of the silly brick breaking, you need real training. First I need you to show me the katas that you know."

After a short argument, during which Ranma explained to Akane why brick training was pointless for her Akane started doing her katas, she was halfway through her first kata when Ranma shouted at her to stop.

"What is it now?" She hissed at him

"You're sloppy, you look clumsy and uncoordinated, like an ox trying to do ballet."  
Tears started forming in her eyes, stung by his words her hands clenched into fists. "Ranma.."

"Don't argue with me!" He shouted, shocking her into silence, "I'm not trying to make fun of you, I'm saying this to make you better, now let's start over again, but this time go through the movements slowly I'm gonna show you how to make each movement better."

Seeing that he was serious she started doing the kata again, she was barely beginning the second move of the kata when she felt Ranma come behind her and grab her hips "Rotate your hips with the punch, it'll give you more power. And pivot on the ball of your foot as your hand shoots out." he stepped back. "Again."

She performed the first two moves this time he didn't jump in till she got to the fifth move in the set, this time he stepped in front of her "That punch isn't meant to be a haymaker Akane, the block before this can also be used as a grab to draw the opponent in for a nice jab." he performed the correct move in front of her, Akane carefully watching his movements and memorizing the correct stances.

Two hours later Akane had the first kata down the correct way, and was performing it for the third time in a row with no interference. Ranma for his part was just admiring his fiancee's beauty and grace, after a she finished up he stood up clearing his throat. "That's enough katas for tonight, you've made great progress, I expect you to practice this every night for the next two weeks and then we'll move on to the next kata."

"Hai sensei," Akane said bowing to him "can we go eat now?"

"You can go ahead and start without me," he said removing his jacket "I still gotta do some practice myself."

Deciding to forgo dinner for now she sat down and watched him do some advanced katas, unable to take her eyes off of his muscles as he performed every move to perfection. _This is how it should have been from the start_. She thought to herself, _oh my what a great body he has_ she thought to herself as the rays from the sunset reflected off of his now sweaty muscles.

After dinner that night they went back up on the roof of the Tendo house and snuggled and shared a few more gentle kisses before he dropped her off in her room and went to his own room to sleep for the night.

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I can't promise all my updates will be this quick, but I'll try not to go too long without updating. Please R&R, thank you!


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I still own nothing, I make no money off this, thanks Rumiko Takahashi for creating cool characters and a fun whacky universe to work in.

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Dressed in his usual samurai attire Kuno sat in his shrine room illuminated by the flickering ambient glow of the candles which lined the room. He sat with his legs crossed, back perfectly straight looking at the pictures of his great loves. _The beauteous fierce tigress Akane Tendo, or my beautiful pig tailed goddess with the fiery hair, I cannot chose! I must have them both! That foul sorcerer nearly wed my beloved Akane, if I could but understand the magic that fiend wields perhaps I may be able to vanquish him._

He bowed the the pictures head touching the floor and spoke reverently to them "I swear to you my love's I shall free you! I must take my leave of you for an unknown amount of time, for only if I train will I be able to finally vanquish that foul sorcerer whom has you under his spell. By the stars which have aligned to unite the three of us I swear it! Fret not while I am gone my lovelies, rest peacefully with the knowledge that I, the rising star, the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High Tatewaki Kuno shall free you so we shall be wed!"

In the Tendo dojo both Ranma and Akane sneezed in their sleep.

Kuno stood up abruptly, ignoring the incense which he knocked over, and shouted. "Sasuke!"

A dark shape dropped down in front of him, "Yes master?" said the loyal ninja looking up at Kuno.

"I will ride out tonight, for how long I will be gone I cannot say, please prepare my steed.. Nay not my steed but my carriage!"

"Yes master, at once master!" he said as he faded from Kuno's view.

Kuno grabbed the map which Nabiki had sold to him for 40,000 yen. "Nabiki told me this would be a great place for I the great Tatewaki Kuno to train to defeat Ranma," he said staring at the point marked on the map "a temple in the mountains of China, perhaps I should have asked her what Shaolin is." he pondered that for a few seconds, "It matters not, for once I have trained I will return to fair Nerima to vanquish the foul Ranma Saotome! Hahahahahaha!"

* * *

The next morning as Akane was headed out for her morning jog Ranma stopped her by the front door making her tie the anvils to her ankles again. She grumbled and tried to complain, but Ranma would have none of it and a few minutes later she was out the door jogging slowly and obviously struggling with the two anvils dragging behind her loudly.

Ranma smiled at the determined look she'd had in her eye's as she jogged out. _"Why do I have to drag around anvils? What's that gonna prove?" _She'd asked him _"Shampoo and Ukyo could both do this easily if asked," _he'd said _"I know you wanna be able to beat them so quit complain' and prove that you're better than them tomboy!" _Soon as the words had left his mouth her whole demeanor had changed, Ranma was just glad that she was as motivated by being able to defeat her opponents as he was towards his.

"Speaking of opponents" he said cracking his knuckles "it's time to wake the panda."

About thirty seconds later a fat sleeping man flew out the window landing in the koi pond with a large splash.

* * *

Ranma had Akane back up on the fence on their way to school that morning, Akane was already showing great improvement, although still slow she was able to make it most of the way to school unassisted by Ranma who still stayed close enough to catch her in case she did fall.

Nothing interesting happened at school that day, although Kuno's absence was noticed by everyone.

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That evening found Ranma and Akane in the dojo, Akane kneeling in front of Ranma waiting for him to start the lesson.

"Last night I realized that all your life a lot has been neglected in your training," he began, holding up a hand he started naming off points on his fingers "no one has made sure that you mastered the basics before moving up the next step, you haven't been taught the proper way to fall, your coordination needs work, your peripheral training needs work, most importantly your balance both physical and emotional need a lotta work."

Akane for her part was trying not to get angry, how could he just sit down and talk to her like that? Last night she'd made considerable improvement, he'd even said so himself! She took a deep breath in and released it "Hai sensei" she said through clenched teeth.

"That's another thing, from now on I want you to wear this" he produced a yellow sash from his pocket "you will wear this around your waist when I tell you to put it on, when you're wearing this we're in master/student time, which means if I tell you to do something you will do it and you won't argue with me. Now, put on the sash." he said looking very stern.

Akane accepted the sash, and realizing how serious the moment was said nothing, and tied the sash around her waist as she was instructed.

"Excellent," said Ranma standing up, "now we're gonna work on that balance, both emotional and physical at the same time tonight! You're so lucky!" he finished with a smile.

He lifted up one of the floorboards and pulled out what appeared to be a large platform with half a ball attached to the bottom of it. "Stand on this and find your balance." he said setting the ball part on the ground.

It took her a few tries but she finally was able to get on the thing without falling down and was standing on the platform feet shoulder width apart with her knees slightly bent.

"Bend your knees more, full horse stance!"

"Like this?"

"Deeper, and breathe!"

She got as low into the horse stance as she could, the effort from holding the stance while trying to stay balanced on the ball causing drops of sweat to appear on her forehead.

"Good, now hold out your hands"

She extended her hands and watched him put a 50lb kettle ball in each hand.

After two minutes she was sweating profusely and her hands were starting to shake, her inner arms were screaming at her from the exertion and the platform was wobbling like crazy. Fortunately Ranma saved her from falling by coming and taking the kettle balls out of her hands.

"Now pull both hands back to your solar plexus."

She did.

"Good now punch, leading with your left hand, don't forget your balance, when you alternate punches pretend there is a rope that runs from your arms behind your back so that as you extend one arm the other has to draw back at the same time, don't forget to breathe and maintain your balance."

Akane started punching as soon as she'd regained control of her platform.

"Who the hell taught you to punch? Did Mr Tendo teach you that? That's horrible."

She grunted starting to look angry again, here she was doing all this work and he was just going to make fun of her?

"Come on, those are some gorilla like punches, I could splash pops with water and he could come in here and do that more gracefully than you're doing now!"

She didn't say anything, just continuing to punch, but her face spoke the words for her, she was outraged!

"Graceful as an ox in ballet shoes, geez tomboy I really do have my work cut out for me."

That was it, she'd had enough. She jumped off the platform, hands still clenched into fists down by her side. "RANMA NO BAKA!" she shouted as she pulled out her mallet, just as it was about to hit Ranma he vanished, a fraction of a second later her left side exploded in pain as she was launched into the opposite wall.

She picked herself up, anger forgotten and held her side delicately, damn he hit her hard!

She looked up searching for him, about to tell him where he could go shove his training if all he was going to be doing was making fun of her and hurting her, when she saw him huddled down in one corner of the dojo rocking back and forth, she waked over to him.

"I'msororry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry." he said with tears in his eyes as he looked up at her.

"You asked me to train you for real, and I wanted to train you to block out your anger, if you wouldn't have been so angry you could have probably blocked that attack before it hit you, I'm so sorry Akane." he said trailing off.

"Ranma!" she said launching herself at him, "thank you!"

Holding her at arms length he blinked at her in surprise.

"Yes, that hurt like hell, but you're finally taking me seriously as a martial artist! That was a painful lesson, but next time I'll remember it when you're goading me along like that!"

"Remember it when **anybody** goads you like that. An important lesson for all martial artists is emotional control, you ever notice how when I'm fighting people I spend most of my time taunting them?"

"I did notice, I always wondered about that."

"Thank you for taking this lesson so well Akane, do you feel up to some kata practice before we call it a night?"

"Sure."

That being said they both practiced the basic kata five times before closing the door to the dojo and calling it a night, as they left Ranma snatched the sash off of Akane's waist.

"What'd you do that for?" she asked in amusement.

"It would be inappropriate of me to kiss you while you still had it on." Ranma said giving her a quick peck on the lips, "I'm gonna go hop in the furo, wanna join me?" he said with a teasing smile.

"Get out of here pervert!" she said laughing as he ran inside the house.

* * *

That night before going to bed Ranma knocked on Soun's door.

"Come in" came a voice from behind the door.

"Hello Mr Tendo" said Ranma stepping into the room "I have a favor to ask you."

"Anything you want son, fire away!"

"Tell Akane about Ryoga"

"Pardon?"

"His curse, the one where he turns into a small black piglet, tell her please?"

"How come you haven't told her yourself son?"

"I am honor bound, I made a vow a long time ago, before I knew how the swine would take advantage of it."

Soun sighed, he'd hoped to not have to be the one to do it. "Very well son, I'll talk with her tomorrow."

"Thank you Mr. Tendo."

"You're welcom Ranma," he said as Ranma started heading out the door "you know Ranma, whenever you feel comfortable with it you may start calling me father or dad instead of Mr. Tendo."

"Thank you Mr Tendo," said Ranma as he stepped out the door "I'll keep that in mind."

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Thank you for reading! Please R&R

P.S. I'm still new to this, I'm trying to make my chapters longer and I'll work harder towards that, but please bear with me. I've never written stories before, I'm used to writing songs and poems so writing out a whole story is a different direction than I'm used to.

Anyway, enough of my chatter, enjoy!


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Anyone who thinks I actually own this and would bother to end the series without them getting married is crazy! Thank again to Rumiko Takahashi for creating the characters and this fun universe to work in.

Thank you caia-chan you're definitely my favorite reviewer!  
To answer your questions, Akane does have some ptsd from Jusendo, that will be broached later. As far as Ranma not using the Umi Sen Ken to train Akane, while that would work while he's training her, it wouldn't prevent him from feeling remorse later. Besides in the future he may have to train other females so I decided to have him just accept it as a necessity for training. Thanks again!

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Anyone who thought that Ranma was stupid simply had a misconception of him. Those who truly knew him and saw how quick he was at learning new martial arts techniques could tell it was genius at work. Even Genma, though he wouldn't admit it, was in awe of his son when after being shown once how the Umi-Sen Ken worked quickly devised his own method of learning the move. Of course most of the people who thought Ranma was an idiot were just people from school whom had just seen his lack of interest in school work and translated that to mean he was nothing but a dumb jock. But given the right motivation Ranma could learn almost anything he wanted to. At the moment he was struggling with some homework.

"AAAHHH!" he shouted flinging his pen to the ground angrily, "I don't get it!"

There was a gentle knock on the door before it opened to reveal Akane's face "You sound really frustrated, would you like some help?"

"Yeah, come on in tomboy, you have to be able to understand this better than me, I can't make sense out of it!"

Akane came into the room, crouching down to extract the pen which had been embedded in the floor with Ranma's throw. Standing behind him she bopped him over the head for calling her "tomboy" before looking over his shoulder at his homework. "Oh I see what the problem is," she said quickly correcting a few equations "you carried over the negative from the first part of the..." the next hour she explained to him exactly how to do the work, and while he did catch most of it and began to understand, after about forty-five minutes he just couldn't stop staring at her. "and that's how you do that!" She finished with a smile on her face at the end of the hour.

"Thank you 'Kane," Ranma said "that helped out loads. Say Akane, wouldyou liketogoonadatethisweekend?"

"Um, a little slower please?"

"Sorry, I got nervous, would you like to go on a date this weekend?"

A beautiful smile graced her features, "Of course I will" she said as she leaned in and gave him a quick kiss, "anyway I promised Kasumi I would help her with dishes. Wanna meet on the roof later?"

"Not tonight," he said somewhat sadly "I want to write down a good training schedule for you, and I gotta plan for our training trip. Say Akane, you remember that move we used to take down the Dojo Destroyer?" At her nod he continued "During our training trip I'd like for us to learn more combination attacks like that, if you can think of any more specific techniques you would like to learn please write them down and hand the paper to me during next practice so I can start planning for all the training."

She beamed at him before leaving the room to go help Kasumi.

* * *

The next few days sort of fell into a routine, Akane with the morning anvil run, Ranma waking up the panda with a bath, school, training, Akane helping Ranma with homework and rooftop meetings before bed. They finally opened up and started having pretty normal conversations with each other on the roof. They'd made no official declaration yet about now being a happy couple, but almost everyone could tell that they seemed to be happier now and their relationship was less tenuous and strained than it had been. Almost everyone.

_Why does this look so familiar _Ryouga thought to himself as he walked through the gates of Furinkan High.

"So," said one girl who was walking by with another girl "did you notice how well Akane and Saotome seem to be getting along now?"

"Yeah, she even told me that she was **glad** that he hit her the other day..."

Ryouga saw red, _he hit her, he __**hit **__her?!_ The nerve of that bastard! Ryouga was so angry he missed the rest of the girls conversation where they talked about how the hit had occurred during training. _I'm gonna kill him, I'm gonna kill him, __**I am going to kill him!**_

Ignoring the few students staring at him strangely, he'd now been standing there five minutes clenching and unclenching his fists, he hopped up on the roof of the gym to wait for Ranma to show up.

* * *

"You did good today Akane, tomorrow you get to run without the anvils and we'll time... "

**"Ranma prepare to die!" **Ryouga's voice boomed through the courtyard **"How dare you hit Akane you fiend! Shi shi hokodan!" **Ryouga wasn't giving Ranma any chances the blast impacted Ranma in the middle of the back and sent him flying into and through the wall of the gym. Everyone in the courtyard went silent, as the dust cleared they saw the debris start moving then Ranma slowly rose up and walked out of the hole in the wall.

"Geez pork butt, what the hell didya do that for?"

**"You jerk! You dare call me such names in front of all these people!?"**

Ranma looked up and saw Akane "Sash now!" he said, she responded by pulling her yellow sash out of her backpack and tying it to her waist. "Remember the balance lesson from earlier this week," he said ignoring Ryouga "it's all about control."

"Pretty cheap shot there p-chan!" he shouted at the lost boy, "I ain't mad at cha though, if I was as unskilled as you I'd need to take cheap shots too!"

Ryouga launched a volley of bandanas at Ranma who hopped over them looking bored. "Is that the best you can do piggy wiggy?"

Throwing his backpack off Ryouga grabbed his umbrella and closed the distance attempting to hit Ranma with the umbrella, causing property damage to the school as he did so. By this time Nabiki had snapped out of her shock at the sudden violent attack and was taking in bets left and right. Ukyo had appeared seemingly out of nowhere and was quickly selling out Okonomiyaki to the spectators of the event.

"Ucchan, make a pork Okinomiyaki for Ryouga please, he obviously needs some more energy, maybe we should take a break from this fight so he can pig out for a bit first!"

Ryouga chicked his umbrella at Ranma who ducked allowing the umbrella to imbed itself halfway into a statue at Principle Kuno, which promptly fell over from the impact.

Ryouga charged forward with a volley of punches and kicks which Ranma didn't even bother parrying as he just danced around Ryouga's anger fueled attacks. Fatigues ugly face was starting to show itself on Ryouga, his attacks were becoming sloppier from having exerted himself for the past few minutes uselessly. Seeing an opportunity to prove his point to his student, Ranma rushed in close to Ryouga "Katchu Tenshin Amaguriken!" he shouted as his fists blurred, a few seconds later he dropped his hands to his sides and stood back as Ryouga fell to the ground knocked out from the attack.

* * *

After the fight most students looked disappointed as they walked over to Nabiki and handed her their money, they had been sure that after Ryouga's cheap shot he would win this fight! Of course Nabiki knew better she, unlike the rest of the student body, knew all the details of Jusendo. She shivered at the thought that her sister had a man who would, and could, literally take a life for her if need be. Even the life of one considered to be a demi-god!

Ryouga's prone body still lay in the middle of the courtyard, no one had bothered moving him knowing he was strong enough to recover from this without assistance. Ranma and Akane sat under a tree a few feet away from the boy eating out of the bento boxes Kasumi had prepared for them. Akane had taken off her sash and was listening to Ranma as he pointed out the flaws Ryouga made due to his angered attacks. "That's the whole problem with fighting in a berserk frenzy," he was saying "Ryouga was overexerting and many times overextending his attacks just trying to hurt me. Normally he's much more controlled which is why he's normally a challenge for me. Only attack of his that hurt at all today was that shi shi hokodan, and even that was weaker than normal because his anger blocked off his channel to depression which he is supposed to use to fuel that attack. There's a reason there's not many ki based attacks that use anger as a source, those attacks get sloppy."

As they finished up their lunch Ryouga started coming to. "Ouch" he mumbled sitting up, "anyone get the number to that bus?"

"While that little bout was a great way to show a lesson to my disciple, would you care telling me what that was all about?" Ranma said looking at the lost boy in confusion.

"You!" Ryouga exclaimed pointing at Ranma "You hit Akane! People were even talking about it, have you no shame?"

"Listen Pumbaa," Ranma replied calmly "Akane has asked me to train her seriously, do you expect me to train her effectively without hitting her on occasion?"

"Oh." said Ryouga realization dawning on him "I guess I took things out of context." Ryouga stood up offering his hand in apology. Ranma shook his hand firmly, then he grinned and patted Ryouga on the head.

"That'll do pig, that'll do."

Ryouga just glared at Ranma, and nodded once sharply and gathered his things so he could go try to find his way home.

* * *

After school Ranma told Akane to go to the dojo and start working on the basic Anything Goes kata again until he got home. "I wanna go talk to the old ghoul, and see if there's any other way out of this Shampoo business." Akane, glad that Ranma was taking things more seriously, just grinned at him before hopping up on the fence and walking home.

Ranma watched her till she disappeared from view very proud of her progress.

After she disappeared from his view he leapt up and landing on the roof of a nearby restaurant started roof hopping until he made it to the Nekohanten.

Walking in through the front door he shouted out "Hey old ghoul, I need to talk to ya!"

The top of his head burst in pain as Cologne whacked him with her stick. "Show some respect son-in-law!"

"Ouch, sorry elder Cologne, can we talk in private please?"

"Sure sonny, follow me." She said using her stick as a pogo stick to hop up the stairs, she led him into a room where she pulled out what looked like a crystal ball, she tapped it twice with her stick and it looked like a bubble swelled up to encase both him and Cologne.

"What the hell is this thing?!" Ranma asked starting to feel nervous.

"Relax child, it's a privacy bubble to keep Shampoo and Mousse from listening in on us. Now what can I do for you?"

"Elder Cologne," he said in a respectful tone "me and you both know that me marrying Shampoo isn't going to happen, I've come to terms with the fact that I'm in love with Akane, and nothing will change that. What can I do to get Shampoo off my back and keep your honor intact at the same time?"

Cologne sighed, "I was afraid this day would come," she began, reaching up on a shelf she grabbed a box that had a lot of paper in it "I wrote this up over a year ago, but I'd hoped I'd never have to use it. Over the time we've been here we've gotten to know you very well Ranma, how good of a person you are, how much you're willing to sacrifice for those you care about, and of course your prowess as a warrior which first drew us to you."

Rifling through the papers she found the one she was looking for, "As I was saying I was preparing for this for a while, after the incident at Jusendo I got the elders in the village to agree to this. If you sign this paper you and your family become honorary members of the Joketsuzoku tribe. I wish to train you in our martial arts and magic, and the only way I can continue to do so is for you to sign this. By becoming a member you will be allowed the choice to turn down Shampoo, although you will hurt her feelings by doing so. By now she does harbor feelings of real love for you, although I think she secretly is in love with Mousse, perhaps you joining the tribe will help open her eyes to her real feelings. Now, a part of joining is that you will be required to spend time in our village learning our customs and culture so you can pass down the knowledge to your future generations. And every few years for the rest of your life you will have to make trips to the village to spend large amounts of time there so that you have a functioning relationship with the rest of the tribe members. You will be allowed to bring your family as they will automatically become members by you signing, I also have a form for Akane to sign which will bestow the same privileges and responsibilities to her."

Ranma was taken aback by this, this sounded wonderful, it was more than he could have hoped! "I cannot speak for Akane Elder, but I believe that she will agree, as for myself I would be honored to join your tribe."

"Good, now I have a second heir to pass down all my knowledge and training to."

"It has been, and will continue to be, an honor to learn from you Elder Cologne."

"Thank you for manning up and coming to have this conversation with me Ranma, I will speak to Shampoo, it may take a little more persuasion to get her to leave you alone, so please take your time and train Akane well. Shampoo will be too busy with work for at least the next several weeks to bother either of you. I will also speak to Mousse and inform him of your decision, and hopefully I can talk the boy into a better way for him to pursue Shampoo. Have you eaten yet Ranma?" She asked him tapping the crystal ball again which made the bubble disappear with a slight _pop__! _sound.

His stomach just happened to growl at that time, Cologne chuckled as Ranma signed the documents he needed to sign, then they headed downstairs where Cologne prepared enough food for three families that she sent him home with.

* * *

"I'm home!" Ranma shouted as he walked in through the front door of the Tendo house, "And I got a whole lotta food!"

Kasumi came out of the kitchen and helped Ranma carry the bags to the kitchen where she started transferring the items out of the styrofoam containers and into serving bowls. "Welcome home Ranma, thank you for bringing home food, Akane is upstairs having a conversation with father. She came down a few minutes ago to get some water, and asked me to have you wait for her in the dojo."

Ranma grinned at her "Thanks Kasumi, how long till we're gonna eat?"

"It'll be about half an hour to forty minutes, I'm still waiting on Nabiki to get home, and I got desert in the oven, that'll give it time to cool down as we eat the meal tonight." She said with a gentle smile on her face."

"Cool, see you in a few then!"

With that he jogged out to the dojo where he sat in lotus position and started meditating as he waited on Akane. About ten minutes later he heard the dojo door slide open and slide shut. He opened his eyes to see Akane standing in front of him, her eyes showing that she was upset and had recently been crying.

"I'm sorry Akane"

"For what? I was too much of an idiot to catch on every time you implied it."

"Still I feel like I should have told you directly."

"Father explained the whole thing to me Ranma, I know how important an honorable promise is to you, look I'm upset but not so much with you as I am with Ryouga, he took advantage of the situation and still has the nerve to call you out like he does. I'll forgive him for this eventually, but you have to promise me, if I attack him you will stay out of it." she said looking at him very sternly.

"I can only promise not to hurt him unless he hurts you."

She sighed, "If that's the best I can get I'll take it. I doubt he'll do anything to me though, I believe despite this he's still honorable, although he may have skewed views on what honor is. But I do eventually want him to be able to be our friend, he's helped us too many times to lose him permanently." she finished as she sat down and laid her head on his shoulder.

"I agree." Ranma said "I'm glad your father was able to explain things to you well, I was kinda worried you'd come in here with mallet sama out seeking my blood" he joked with her.

She punched him in the shoulder and stuck her tongue out at him. "Well you have absolutely no faith in me!" she said as she stood up and started walking towards the door with a pout on her face.

"No ya don't!" Ranma said grabbing her around the waist, unfortunately (or fortunately) she had decided to turn around at that same time causing them both to fall down where she landed on top of Ranma.

After they laughed for a few seconds, they both noticed the position they were in, instead of making excuses or running to separate corners as they used to do, they just stared into each others eyes. Ranma reached up, brushed a stray hair out of her eyes and muttered "Kawaii" causing Akane to blush. She didn't say anything and instead chose to close the distance and kissed him deeply. They sat up, Ranma pulling Akane up on his lap, as they both started kissing passionately. This was more than their previous kisses, things were heating up, Ranma's hand slid up Akane's waist till his hand cupped her breast. She didn't fight him, rather she leaned into it, she broke the kiss for a moment and moaned his name "Ranma..."

"Time to eat!" came Kasumi's voice from the house.

Both stopped, and simultaneously their stomachs growled at them, and both started laughing. After they shared a good laugh they shared a couple more less passionate kisses and headed inside.

* * *

Okay! End of Chapter 4! Longest chapter yet! I promised I'd work on the chapter length and will continue to do so! As always please R&R. Flames are welcome too, I don't mind :)


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I own nothing! I wish I had thought of these characters before Rumiko Takahashi did, I'd be rich!

Thanks for the reviews everyone.. and I was thinking that I might have Cologne give Akane a few exceptions to the tribes rules, being that she is native from Japan and lives in Japan full time. Although I think they might have to follow all the rules when they actually visit the village.. I'm not sure yet.. thanks for bringing that up! :)

* * *

Kasumi grinned, everything was going according to plan, the clarity potion had been a great investment. A dose in a meal here and there and things started changing, Akane and Ranma tried to hide their blossoming love, but Kasumi was far more observant than anyone would have given her credit for. It was 4:30 in the morning, and it would be about two more hours before anyone else woke up in the household. She got out of her bed and did a few stretches getting the kinks out of her back. Afterwards she went downstairs and put rice and water in the rice cooker and went outside and started her morning Tai Chi practice. As she concentrated her Chi became slightly visible shining in a baby blue hue off her hands.

She flowed gracefully from one movement into another, as she moved the blue glow seemed to surround her radiating off her body gently. She switched from White Crane and crossed her arms in front of her chest before performing the next move, her breathing calm and even. Her hair, not in it's usual tail, whipped around her face with her movements, slightly damp from the early morning moisture. She performed a total of three routines before she stopped, bringing her hands together in front of her face gently, causing the glow to fade.

Afterwards she went inside and walked into the furo for a nice soak. When she was clean she got out of the bath and set to making breakfast for the rest of the family hearing the stirrings upstairs of everyone else waking up, as she set out the food she added a couple drops from an eye drop bottle into the rice pot and stirred the rice.

* * *

It was 8:00 before anyone else decided to get up in the house, as it was Saturday and there was no school, there was no need to be in a rush. An owl flew off of a cherry blossom tree in the yard and disappeared into the distance in it's search for a place to sleep for the day. Genma woke up before Ranma and decided to try giving Ranma the same rude awakening he'd been receiving for the past week. He opened the door and stepped out into the hallway and lined Ranma's head up with the window, figuring out just the right angle to punt Ranma so he'd land in the koi pond. After lining up his shot he ran and kicked!

...And landed flat on his back as Ranma rolled over to his side and scratched at an armpit.

Irritated the old man got up and lined the shot up again he charged forward at full speed...

"Good morning Mr. Saotome" came a voice from next to him, Nabiki watched in amusement as Mr Saotome comically stared at her his momentum still at full tilt and flew out the window completely missing Ranma. A second later Nabiki grinned as she heard a satisfying _**splash**_ followed by a lot of angry sounding panda growls from outside.

* * *

On a yacht in the middle of the East India Sea Kuno stood at the helm watching his hired crew work, loosening ropes to give slack to the sails, and tying off others to tighten the sails in different spots. His "crew" consisted of one person. A certain lost boy wearing yellow bandanas had bumped into him at the port and Kuno, with promises of adventure and wealth, convinced him to tag along. Despite all evidence to the contrary Kuno was pretty smart, and one of the things he actually did know to do was to sail. Long long ago one of his ancestors was a pirate who sailed with a legendary crew, of course Kuno knew the legends to be mostly wild exaggerations, after all what kind of samurai could fight with three katanas at the same time?

Kuno could smell it in the wind, something was wrong, "Ahoy!" he shouted out loudly "be lively, there's a storm brewin!"

"What do we do Kuno?!"

Seemingly out of nowhere dark clouds started filling the sky with lightning dancing among the clouds. The winds picked up, the sea water started cresting and looking dangerous as the yacht started getting tossed upon the waves of the angry sea.

"We'll have to jibe her!" Kuno shouted over the winds which had picked up loudly.

"How do I do that?"

"It's just the opposite of a tack!"

"Oh, okay!"

"Are you ready to jibe?"

Ryouga looked around the ship all the way "Aye aye captain!"

"Jibe ho!" shouted Kuno as he grabbed onto the mainsail and pulled it all the way in. Then he pulled the tiller away from the mainsail so as to keep the ship turned downwind. As the sail moved to the other side of the boat he motioned to Ryouga who moved to the opposite side of the boat at the same time Kuno did. Kuno then stepped back and let the mainsail back out allowing it to catch the full gust of the oncoming winds from the storm propelling the yacht forward. Kuno got out his compass and got their bearings and set the tiller back to the middle. He then had Ryouga trim the sails as he found a safer passage for them to avoid the storm so they could continue on their course.

* * *

"What a haul! What a haul!" shouted Happosai gleefully as he ran across rooftops with a giant bag filled to the brim with panties and bras from the young women of Nerima. "Oh Happosai" he heard a sweet voice say. He looked down from the rooftop. "Kasumi!" he shouted letting go of his bag and jumping down at her trying to land face first in her bosom. At the last possible moment she turned and grabbed him out of midair and slammed him into a wall. "Oh my" she said in an innocent sounding voice that would have fooled any bystander.

"I spoke with mom last night," Kasumi whispered in his ear in a sweet, yet somehow menacing tone "she told me of the hell that awaits for you if you keep this kinda shit up, her words not mine. You know if you keep this up, in the afterlife, you will never ever lay eyes on a female again. Can you deal with eternity? Never seeing these?" she heaved her bosom suggestively, "or.." she trailed off suggestively. Happosai gulped audibly.

"Of course eternity of no females isn't set in stone. But you've pissed a lot of deities off. Even minor god's want some form of revenge on you for one thing or another, not to mention curses made upon you by the Amazon's of Cologne's tribe. If you start doing a few things better now you can prevent that future."

Looking at him up and down she said "Nobody would expect you to be a saint, you're not even expected to completely give up your panty raids, although I personally think you should make that a goal anyway cause it won't hurt your cause. You are expected to whip Genma and Soun back into shape, not with greedy purposes, you can't go back to teaching them to be thieves, make them into honorable martial artists that will be able to endure the coming storm. That's what she asked me to tell you." she said as she glanced at her watch "Oh my, look at the time, I have to head back home and start cleaning so I can prepare lunch," she paused glancing up at him "lunch will be at noon. See you then." Kasumi finished sweetly as she walked away, leaving Happosai sitting there in the same spot considering her words seriously.

Happosai was one of the only people who knew Kasumi was far more than she appeared, among the few that could say that were him, Ranma, Akane and Dr. Tofu. Everyone else saw exactly what Kasumi wanted them to see. And Happosai knew, better than any of the others, if Kasumi said she spoke to her mother. Then whether it was a dream or vision the will and intent would have been Kimiko's and he had no doubt in his mind that the deities themselves would have entrusted their will to Kasumi.

After lunch at the Tendo's Happosai headed over to the Nekohanted for a much overdue conversation with Elder Cologne, he carried a bag on his back that for once was not filled with panties and bras, bat rather ill gotten gains which he needed to return.

* * *

"Nabiki" Nabiki looked up from her magazine and saw Kasumi standing at the entrance to her door.

"To what do I owe the pleasure big sis?"

"You need to do your tests and enroll in college Nabiki. You've played around long enough, you have way more than you need for tuition, and I'm about to go set father straight so that he can start teaching again. Speaking of which, talk to your people, and get the word out that father will be taking students again, Mr. Saotome will possibly be teaching alongside him." she added as an afterthought. Her tone told Nabiki that this was not a matter that was up for discussion, Nabiki was not altogether sure why she was procrastinating on enrolling, for some reason she thought it might have something to do with Kuno. _Jerk didn't even tell me he was leaving well, Kuno baby is gonna owe me big when he gets back. _

Sighing Nabiki got off her bed and went to her desk where she pulled out all her college applications and sat down to fill them out.

* * *

Later that day Kasumi dragged a crying Soun Tendo into the dojo where she spoke to him very seriously on a large matter of topics their conversation dragged on into the evening hours and Kasumi ordered sushi for dinner for everyone minus Akane and Ranma who'd both told her they were going on a date, Kasumi just told the rest of the family that Ranma had another challenge and Akane went to watch hoping to learn something.

* * *

On the train Akane and Ranma laughed, they both found it a little ridiculous having to sneak away like this. But what else could they do? If they told the family that they were trying dating their fathers would have them in front of a priest within minutes! Fortunately they knew they could trust Kasumi. Akane always knew because she'd grown up idolizing Kasumi, Ranma because he'd secretly helped Kasumi with some of her Tai Chi training on a few memorable mornings when he'd just happened to wake up extra early. During those times he'd learned quite a bit about Kasumi and was really happy that he'd eventually be calling her sister.

About ten minutes into the ride they'd both fallen asleep. Suddenly there was a loud **BANG!**

Ranma looked up to see a few men in masks aboard the train, two of them were carrying guns.

* * *

Sorry for the short chapter! I was gonna keep writing, but then a little voice inside me was like "Cliffie! Cliffie!" and I had to submit to it's will.

Anyway for now R&R, there will be more soon!


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma he belongs to Rumiko Takahashi... I also do not own Izamani and Izanagi.. their myth belongs to Japan..

And no I didn't write the myth, that part is not from my imagination.

* * *

In the beginning, heaven and earth were not divided. Then, from the ocean of chaos, a reed arose, and that was the eternal land ruler, _Kunitokotachi._

Then came the female god, _Izanami,_ and the male, _Izanagi. _They stood on the floating bridge of heaven and stirred the ocean with a jeweled spear until it curdled, and so created the first island, _Onokoro_. They built a house on this island, with a central stone pillar that is the backbone of the world. Izanami walked one way around the pillar, and Izanagi walked the other. When they met face to face, they united in marriage.

Their first child was named _Hiruko_, but he did not thrive, so when he was three, they placed him in a reed boat and set him adrift; he became _Ebisu, _god of fishermen. Then Izanami gave birth to the eight islands of Japan. And finally Izanami began to give birth to the gods who would fashion and rule the world-gods of the sea and gods of the land, gods of the rain and wind. But when Izanami gave birth to the god of fire, she was so badly burned that she died.

Izanagi was furious with the fire god and cut him into three pieces. Then he set out to search for Izanami. He went right down into the Land of Gloom looking for her. He called her, saying, "Come back, my love. The lands we are making are not yet finished!" She came to him, saying, "You are too late. I have already eaten the food of this land. But I would like to return. Wait here for me, and I will ask permission from the spirits of the underworld. But do not try to look at me."

At length, Izanagi got tired of waiting, so he broke off a tooth from the comb he wore in his hair to use as a torch and followed her. When he found her, he saw that she was already rotting and maggots were swarming over her body. She was giving birth to the eight gods of thunder. Izanagi drew back, revolted. Izanami called after him, "Shame on you." She commanded the foul spirits of the Land of Gloom to slay him.

The spirits pursued Izanagi, but he managed to escape. He threw down his headdress and it turned into grapes, which the spirits stopped to eat. Then he threw down his comb, which turned into bamboo shoots, and once again the spirits stopped to eat. By the time Izanagi reached the pass between the land of the dead and the land of the living, Izanami herself had nearly caught up with him. But Izanagi saw her coming and quickly blocked the pass with a huge boulder that would take a thousand men to lift, so making a permanent barrier between life and death.

Standing on the other side of the boulder, Izanami shouted, "Every day I will kill a thousand people, and bring them to this land!" Izanagi replied, "Every day I will cause one thousand five hundred babies to be born."

Then Izanagi left Izanami to rule the Land of Gloom, and returned to the land of the living.

Izanagi came to a grove of orange trees on a plain covered with bush clover. There he bathed at the mouth of a clear stream, and, as he washed the filth of the underworld from his face, more gods were born. He wiped his left eye and created _Amaterasu,_ goddess of the sun. He wiped his right eye and created _Tsuki-yomi, _god of the moon. He wiped his nose and created _Susanowo,_ god of tempests.

* * *

His mind and body now completely in danger mode, time seemed to slow down for Ranma. He looked out from behind the door and saw there were altogether five men in the group. They stood out from everyone else because they were all wearing black cloaks and face masks. The face masks were each individually unique, they resembled the masks that samurai wore into battle, the cloaks however were the same. They were completely black, except for the back of the cloak where in the middle there was a outline of a pyramid with a man sitting in the middle of the pyramid levitating in a cross legged position. Behind the pyramid and the man was what appeared to be a giant scythe. The man with his back to Ranma was one of the men with guns, he had what looked like a shotgun, and he held it in both hands professionally looking for all purposes ready to kill anyone who made a stupid move. The other man with a gun was the man in front of the group, his mask was pure black except for a red slash that ran halfway down the mask as if it was a sword cut on the demon-like face. He had a shotgun also, and while he had a practiced ease with the way he carried his shotgun, he had it pointed at the ceiling where debris was raining down from where he'd just fired a shot to get everyone's attention. It didn't look to Ranma like him and Akane had been noticed yet.

In a quick movement he pulled her down and started whispering quickly, an idea forming in his head as he spoke. "Please hide here," Ranma held up a hand to stall any protest she was about to give, "two of them have guns and the others have katanas, real katanas. Wait for them to come to you, remember your training, get that mallet if you need to."

"What about you?"

"I got cleanup to do." said Ranma as he faded out of sight going into the Umi Sen Ken.

Akane took her jacket off and wrapped one sleeve around one of her hands. If one of the swordsmen came after her at least she may be able to tangle up his sword and slow him down!

"We're not here for your money!" the leaders voice came from the mask sounding harsh and cold, "there are a few men on this train whom we've been contracted to kill, they just happen to all be here at the same time. Now if you listen to me you may all be able to live through this ordeal." With one hand he opened the front of his cloak revealing that a bomb was strapped to him. "However if you decide that you would rather do this the hard way we can all die here today!"

The people all shrank back in fear, a few children started weeping, the grownups tried to look calm for the children's sake. "My men here are going to do a sweep of the train" the black masked man said "You all be nice and hand them your tickets now you hear?" with that he walked over to a man who looked to be about in his mid forties. "You, get up. You look familiar.." he said taking a step towards the man. Deciding he wouldn't wait the man started running, in a split second the masked man had leveled his gun and fired. _**BANG!**_

People turned away, parents covering their children's eyes, as the man died on the floor blood flowing down the train underneath him. The gunman calmly walked over to the mans body and reached into his pocket and pulled out the man's I.D.. "Not even the right guy." he said in a bored tone, "fucking dumb-ass!" he shouted firing another shot into the corpses back.

Everyone just stared wide eyed at the incident unfolding before them. Had Ranma not been in the Umi Sen Ken's emotionless state he would have been slack jawed as well.

To any untrained observer it would have appeared that two of the swordmen had just out of nowhere decided to attack each other. As both impaled each other on the others sword, then one of the swords vanished sent flying quickly down the aisle of the train where it sliced off the hand of the other gunman. The last swordsman, who was struggling to figure out what was going on, suddenly found his head wrapped in a yellow cloth. He started swinging his sword blindly, unfortunately for him his attacker was behind him, and used his momentum to trip his legs and land him face first on the ground. As soon as the man was on the ground Akane started bashing his face on the ground repeatedly till his body went limp in her hands.

The gunman whose hand had been cut off leaned against a seat, his face contorted in agony, holding his wrist close to his body watching the blood gush out. "I still have the bomb." the man in the black mask said, "and I still got this gun." he said leveling his gun at Ranma.

"NO!" Akane yelled from across the room, she picked up the sword and sent it flying through the air spinning hilt over blade, this one was not as well aimed as Ranmas had been however and just cut halfway into the gun. The man flung down his gun in disgust.

The masked man's posture relaxed, he looked at Ranma, then he laughed and pulled out what looked like a detonator. "I could end this just by pushing this button." he looked like he was about to push it. Ranma was hoping he could fire a Moko Takabisha fast enough to minimize damage and save as many lives as possible. "But hell with it," the man put the detonator back in his pocket. "I don't think I've ever faced an opponent like you. I didn't even register you were there till I saw you cutting down my partners."

The man threw off the cloak, revealing a lean although heavily muscled body. With a burst of speed the man charged Ranma who barely had enough times to get his hands up before his fist connected. The punch sent Ranma flying back where he landed flat on his back next to the compartment Akane was still standing by. "Ouch, damn that guys tough, nice panties by the way." Ranma said as he hopped back up.

Despite how serious and how dangerous this moment was Akane still blushed. The man was grinning, "Good, I was hoping you'd be able to handle that, I would have been disappointed if that's all it took."

Him and Ranma both charged forward this time, they clashed feet and hands launching fast from both, although in this scenario the other man seemed just a little faster than Ranma. The man drove an elbow upwards, in an unusual looking move, through Ranma's defenses leaving him open for a second, and landed several punches on Ranma's stomach. Fortunately Ranma was able to jump back just as the man drew a knife and tried to stab him. Clutching his stomach in pain Ranma hunched over and took a couple of deep breaths before settling back into his usual relaxed stance. He looked calm, but his mind was racing. _Dammit, this guys good. I have to end this fast.._

The man charged again, this time he led with a jab and as Ranma was dodging the jab he turned it into a kick that launched Ranma back several feet. Ranma almost fell, he clutched his abdomen as he coughed, he saw a little blood on his hand._ Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit... _He felt his control slipping, he shook his head and took a deep breath. Then he started laughing, acting like he wasn't hurt, acting like he was in a normal tussle with Ryouga he put a wall between himself and the fear that he felt. "I guess it's time to stop taking it easy on you." He said with a confidence he didn't feel, he glanced up and saw Akane, her face pale with fear, tear streaks down the side of her face. His mind cleared, he knew what he had to do, he grinned at the man and faded into the Umi Sen Ken again.

"That's not gonna work on me!" The man shouted, "he lashed out with a backfist, just missing Ranma's head. Then he launched a kick that Ranma had to evade quickly, Ranma kept doing this, dodging with just fractions of milliseconds to spare. "Come on, fight me asshole!" The man's control was finally breaking, Ranma noticed, his plan falling apart, his men dead, and now this. It was finally too much for him. After a few more dodge's Ranma saw his opening and struck "Hiryu Shoten Ha revised Heaven's dagger!" Ranma shouted drawing his hand across the mans body in a slashing motion. Ranma had used the soul of ice and the mans anger to start the Hiryu Shoten Ha, due to the closed confines of the train he had to revise and the energy from "blast" created a small dagger which had now slashed the black masked man's stomach open. The man looked at Ranma in shock, before dropping to the floor.

As the man lay on the floor bleeding out, Ranma barely noticed the people on the train had begun moving, parents ushering their kids into different rooms. And the adults cleaning up the mess, Ranma stumbled over to Akane she was looking at him in worry and saying something to him frantically. He couldn't really understand her, he just gave her a thumbs up and relaxed next to her. He then noticed a pain in his side, the last thing he saw as the world faded to black was a short dagger stuck in his side.

* * *

**_RING!__ RING! _**

Kusimi answered the phone tiredly, "Hello?" she listened for a few seconds "Please calm down and slow down Akane.. Okay... Oh my God.. Oh my.." Kasumi hung up the phone. "Everyone wake up! There's been an emergency!"

* * *

Ranma woke up in a room that smelled very... Clean. He blinked, a hospital. He looked around and saw Akane asleep in a chair. The memories flashed back through his head, the attack, the gunsman... the bodies.. He'd killed someone.. Multiple people, he got up and ran to the bathroom where he started heaving.

"Naturally," came Akane's tired voice, "you get stabbed and cut several times and you're _still_ able to get up running."

"Did those men die?"

"All except one. The police have him held for questioning. "

"Fuck."

"I'm sorry Ranma, you saved a lot of people though. I love you." Akane said hugging him from behind. "The police will want to speak to us in a few days, for now everyone is waiting in the lounge. The doctor said that when you wake up you can leave whenever you decide to. Dr Tofu just came back to town and agreed to stay for a few nights to watch over you so you don't have to stay here."

They walked out into the lounge and there were several people there he didn't recognize waiting, along with the Tendo's and his parents. Akane spoke up, "These are the people from the train. They wanted to stay here and wait for you to wake up so they could thank you personally."

In the next half hour, after Dr Tofu had made Ranma sit down, Ranma met several of the passengers from the train, including children who decided they no longer wanted to be Batman, Superman, or even Goku when they grew up. They now wanted to be Ranma Saotome and save innocent people with the aid of a beautiful maiden. When they finally made it home Ranma didn't bother going upstairs, he relaxed on the couch with Akane snuggled up to his side. Right before he fell asleep Ranma muttered in Akane's ear "Let's have children someday." Both slept very peacefully that night with smiles on their faces.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I own nothing! Ranma does not belong to me, he belongs to Rumiko Takahashi..

The story of Wing Chun does not belong to me.. it belongs to Chinese history :)

* * *

"We'll need to find the fountain again."

"Happy, that could take a long time, and there's no guarantee that we'll find it, or that it's even there."

"Finding it won't be as difficult as you think," said Happosai as he pulled out a really old looking map and set it on the table. "This map once belonged to Alexander the Great. And this spot here," he said pointing at a spot that depicted a fish in a bowl of water with two men watching it "is where the fountain is located."

"Al-Khidr!" Cologne exclaimed in shock, "How in the world did you come across this map?!"

Happosai grinned, knowing that now that Cologne had seen the map she'd definitely be coming along. "I'll explain on our trip, first we must make plans for our disciples..."

And so the two sat down and began planning for their trip, and training for their students to do while they were away in India.

* * *

At the Tendo dojo things fell into a very productive routine. After Ranma got the okay from Tofu to continue his training he'd spared no time in teaching Akane to roof hop. After he was confident in her roof hopping abilities he took her out to the woods and trained her to hop from tree to tree. During school days Ranma had developed an intense focus in his schoolwork, he was getting passing grades from every class now, and he found that he actually had a natural ability with his English and was soon getting the best grades in English. Soun had been convinced by the rest of the family to take on new students and was teaching 3 times a week with the assistance of Mr Saotome. Within three weeks time the Saotome house had been rebuilt, and Nodoka and Genma moved back home, although they were frequently at the Tendo's. Genma came to teach class and play shogi, and Nodoka came to help Kasumi with chores, finding that she immensely enjoyed conversing with the eldest Tendo girl.

After Ranma's injuries had healed Dr. Tofu had moved back into his clinic. While he'd been away he'd studied more meditation techniques, and although he still got very nervous, he could be around Kasumi without going crazy. A few days after moving into his clinic he'd finally worked up the nerve to ask Kasumi out on a date and she'd agreed, Ranma and Akane also wanted to try a date again, and it was agreed that the four would go together on a double date. Cologne had dropped by one night and given Akane and Ranma some books on Amazon laws, she'd told them it was very important to learn them all, even though when they were living in Japan they weren't expected to abide by them. Ranma and Akane had also had to go to court a few times to give testimony to what had occurred on the train. Fortunately there was enough witnesses to the whole event that the defense did not even try to flip things on Ranma and Akane.

They learned that the men killed were part of an underground association with ties to the Yakuza. The survivors name was Ichiro Sagane and he revealed that the group was called the "Servants of Izanagi" and were a large group of contract killers who worked for the Yakuza within rigid religious constraints. After he'd imparted that information he'd mysteriously died in his cell that night.

Ranma didn't tell anyone, but he was having some very troubling nightmares after the incident aboard the train. He had a lot of inner conflict over the whole situation _I should have found a different way_ he kept thinking to himself, deeply remorseful that he'd resorted to killing. He played the whole thing back in his head, and in reflection he found ways he may have been able to take the guys out without killing, but no matter how he played it in his mind people always died. Whether it was from his direct violence, or from the violence of the Servants, who in his nightmares, killed off a lot of the regular people when he didn't kill them. _Does it justify my actions, or do I just want it to?_

* * *

"Nooooo!" shouted Ranma as he sat bolt upright in his futon. It was the middle of the night, sweat was rolling off his body from tossing and turning in his sleep, his nights were getting more and more cluttered with nightmares. He heard a gentle knock on his door, he sighed "Come in."

Akane stepped in, clad in her yellow nightgown, she walked over to his futon and sat down next to him. "Wanna talk about it?"

"Aww geez, what's there to talk about 'Kane?"

Akane didn't say anything, she just stared at the futon.

"I'm sorry Akane, I... I can't stop... I.. there's so much blood on my hands.."

Akane still didn't say anything, she just moved close and put her arms around him.

"I.. I..." Unable to get any more words out Ranma broke down into tears, Akane turned Ranma around so he was facing her and pulled his head into his shoulder as he cried. About half an hour later he stopped crying, Akane got up, "I'll be back in just a couple seconds." She padded out of the room quietly in her slippers and returned a minute later with a box of tissues and a glass of water. Ranma used a couple tissues and downed the water in one gulp.

"Thanks Akane." Ranma said, he was looking down, ashamed he'd broken down in front of her like that, and as a guy too!

"It's okay Ranma, I understand." she yawned, it was still late, then she slid into the futon with him.

Ranma looked at her startled, she moved so she was partially on top of him and gave him a very deep kiss.

"I love you Ranma, now let's go to sleep."

With her cuddled up to him he fell back asleep in almost no time, and he slept peacefully the rest of the night, no longer plagued by the nightmares which had been haunting him.

* * *

Nabiki lay awake in her room, she wouldn't let anyone else know it, but the last several weeks had been exhausting for her. And had cost her a lot of money. Fortunately she had ideas for new business ventures, but still this had almost cost her a lot of the money she'd been putting aside for college! The police had been rather easy to convince to leave Ranma and Akane alone, after all with so many witnesses including children, they had nothing to prosecute them for. The men were all repeat offenders and the Japanese government was more than happy to be rid of them, although it took all of Nabiki's wit and powers of persuasion to get them to turn over the bounty money to her family. The difficult ones to work with of course was the Yakuza. She'd had to talk to Shinobu Tsukasa in person! That was something that could make even seasoned warriors cringe in fear. The Kumicho himself had requested her by name. Fortunately for her she was able to negotiate, although she'd had to use most of the bounty money to cover his price. Then the hospital bills, and all the money she was already missing from the lack of action recently just made it a rough time for Nabiki financially.

She sighed, normally she'd just sell of pictures of Akane to Kuno. Of course right now even if he was here she wouldn't do that, but for some reason she still missed Kuno. Granted, he was a total idiot, but at times, when it was just him and Nabiki, and he wasn't obsessing over her sister, or his "pig tailed goddess"... he could be.. nice.

Nabiki put Kuno out of mind and focused on the question at hand, to join the Yakuza, or not?

* * *

The next morning as everyone gathered around the table for breakfast there was a crash and a splash of water.

"Sweeto!" shouted Happosai as he glomped the now-female Ranma's breasts.

"Ack!" Ranma said punching the old mans head "Let go of me ya perverted old freak!"

Happosai and Ranma both leaped back into fighting stances, then Cologne appeared next to Happosai and rapped him over the head with her stick. "Enough of this, focus!"

"I was just having a little fun, can't an old man have fun?" He looked at her with pleading eyes.

"It's not the time, Ranma gather everyone around the table."

There was a knock at the door. "Ah just in time, Nabiki could you please let in the Saotome's?" Cologne asked looking at the door.

Nabiki shrugged sleepily and got up to go open the door, still rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

When everyone was seated at the table Cologne pointed at Genma and Soun, "You and you, you're coming with me and Happosai for three weeks." Cologne said in a tone that left no room for argument.

"But our students." Tendo started

Cologne held up a hand, "They will be informed that you have gone on a training mission."

* * *

Akane and Ranma jogged along the top of the fences to school, every now and then Ranma would turn around and attack Akane, which she was usually able to successfully block. Today she had four stickers on her face, he didn't wanna hit her while they were running to school so he'd taken up seeing how many stickers he could mark her with. The first time he'd had over twenty stickers on her, she was a lot faster now, and her senses had really been kicked into gear thanks to the training Ranma had been giving her over the last few weeks. Tonight they were supposed to start training her in the Katchu Tenshin Amaguriken.

"So whadya figure the old ghoul and the pervert want with our fathers anyway?" Ramma asked managing to mark her with another sticker.

Akane glared at him as he swung with another sticker, "They said it was a training trip, and I believe that's what it is, they looked serious."

"Yeah," he said "I believe that they're really going to train. But why? And why are Cologne and Happosai teaming up now?"

"I don't know" Akane said as she dodged his jab, then she got a sly look in her eyes, "but we're here!" she shouted as she grabbed his arm and flipped him onto his back.

"So uncute..." Akane just stuck out her tongue at him and walked towards the school, he watched her for a few seconds before hopping up and walking into the school beside her.

* * *

When Ranma and Akane got home Kasumi greeted them at the door, "Welcome home Akane, Ranma, I have some food made if you want a snack. Oh, and Ranma, Cologne asked me to give this to you."

"Thanks Kasumi!" Both voices said at once as Ranma grabbed a note and a book from Kasumi and followed Akane into the kitchen.

They both grabbed a large plate full of sushi and headed to the living room. Akane turned on the T.V. and started scanning the channels as Ranma read the note Cologne had left.

_Ranma, two weeks ago you approached me and asked if I knew any good close quarter training techniques, I told you I'd have to look into a few things. To answer you I think I found just the kind of training you want. I have petitioned a friend in Hong Kong, he said he would be glad to train you and Akane, but you guys will have to go live over there for the duration of the training. You don't have to decide now, you have a month till you're out of school, but you and Akane have both been invited, and I would recommend you both take advantage of this opportunity as he's one of the most renowned masters worldwide. _

_First I will tell you the history of this martial art, it starts with a native of Canton, China. She was intelligent, athletic, and noble. When she was young, she was betrothed to Leung Bok Chau, a salt merchant from Fukien. Soon after that, her mother died, and her father, Yim Yee, was wrongfully accused of a crime and almost sent to jail. So the family moved away and settled down at the foot of Tai Leung Mountain. There, they opened a store and made a living selling bean curds._

_At this time, the kung fu at the Siu Lim (Shaolin) Temple had become very good. This caused fear in the Manchu government, so they sent troops to attack the Temple. They were unsuccessful. A man called Chan Man Wai was seeking favor with the government and developed a plan to destroy the temple. He plotted with some monks from the Temple. They set fire to the Temple while soldiers attacked it from the outside. Siu Lim was burnt down and the surviving monks scattered. Five masters, Ng Mui, Chi Shin, Pak Mei, Fung To Tak, and Miu Hin escaped and went their separate ways._

_Ng Mui took refuge at the White Crane Temple on Tai Leung Mountain. There she met Yim Yee and his daughter Yim Wing Chun. She bought bean curds at their store, and she became a friend of the family._

_Yim Wing Chun had become a beautiful young woman, and her beauty attracted the unwanted attention of a local bully. He tried to force her to marry him, and she and her father were very worried. Ng Mui learned of this situation and felt sorry for Yim Wing Chun, so she offered to teach her to fight so that she could protect herself and marry the man to whom she was betrothed, Leung Bok Chau. Yim Wing Chun accepted the offer and started to learn kung fu from Ng Mui. She trained vigorously and soon mastered the techniques given to her by Ng Mui. She then challenged the bully to a fight and easily defeated him. Ng Mui soon left to travel around the country, but before she did, she told Yim Wing Chun to honor the kung fu traditions, to continue to develop her kung fu, and to help the people who were working to overthrow the Manchu government. This is how Wing Chun Kung Fu was handed down from Ng Mui._

_After she was married, Yim Wing Chun passed her knowledge of kung fu to her husband Leung Bok Chau. Leung Bok Chau passed his kung fu on to Leung Lan Kwai. Leung Lan Kwai then passed it on to Wong Wah Bo. Wong Wah Bo was a member of an opera troupe known as the Red Junk. Wong worked on the Red Junk with Leung Yee Tai. Abbot Chi Shin, who had also fled from the Siu Liu Temple, had disguised himself as a cook and was also working on the Red Junk. Chi Shin taught the Six-and-a-half Point Long Pole Techniques to Leung Yee Tai. Because Wong Wah Bo and Leung Yee Tai were close friends, they shared their knowledge of kung fu. They practiced together to improve their skills, and this is how the Six-and-a-half Point Long Pole Techniques were incorporated into the Wing Chun Kung Fu system._

_Leung Yee Tai then passed his kung fu on to Leung Jan, a well known herbal doctor in FoShan. Leung Jan learned the complete system of Wing Chun and attained the highest level of proficiency. Later, Leung Jan passed his kung fu on to Chan Wah Shan, who accepted a young man by the name of Ip Man as his student. _

_A long time ago, before I was born Yim Wing Chun passed through my village and taught our elders some of her techniques, it is from those techniques that the Katchu Tenshin Amaguriken was invented. As I said you have plenty of time to think over your decision, but you might want to give it some serious consideration. I will see you in three weeks, for now learn what you can from the book.  
_

That night Ranma started Akane on the Katchu Tenshin Amaguriken training while he read the book, this kung fu sounded wonderful and he was excited about learning new techniques. Him and Akane would have to talk about later, he glanced up as she jumped up shaking her hands.

"Ow ow ow ow ow!"

"You're overdoing it tomboy, six from the fire is a great start, you can work on it some more tomorrow."

"I'm never gonna master it if I quit now!"

"You will, be patient, it took me a week remember? Come over here, read this note Cologne left and check out this book."

As Akane sat next to him he put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, she leaned in to him enjoying the close proximity and the warmth of the fire as she relaxed and started reading.

* * *

Thanks for reading, please review, I'll have another chapter up soon! :)


	8. Chapter 8

To all my usual readers, sorry I haven't updated in a while. My computer is old and isn't working too well, my computer lately only allows me a little bit of access to this site, and won't let me publish anything. I'd try to fix it, but the computer is refusing downloads as well. I just gotta get the damn thing replaced.. Only reason I happened to post a chapter today is because I had extra time and decided to hang out in the library after my studio session.

On that note, I still own nothing. Well the servants are my own idea.. League of Darkness is loosely based on the League of Shadows from Batman and will also be getting more play as the story goes on...

* * *

With everyone disappearing left and right things seemed to be quieting down in Nerima, even at Furinkan students had started to relax, getting accustomed to the days without dramatic fiance fight challenges, or underwear stealing perverts, or panda's fighting against demons, or any of the other usual craziness that seemed to follow Ranma around like a magnet. Furinkan students now started to look at Ranma differently, he seemed more mature and more at peace. Students interested in martial arts had noticed Akane's improvement since Ranma had started training her seriously and had made mental notes to themselves to pay attention for when Ranma decided to start training his own classes.

It was a beautiful spring day, the cherry blossoms were beggining to blossom adding beatiful pinks to the green that was starting to cover the foilage. Ranma and Akane sat under one cherry blossom tree eating from the bento's Kasumi had prepared for them that morning, each had a different array of food in their bento's so they randomly kept stealing food from each others bento's. Although in a far more gentle and playful manner than in what would have been seen were it Ranma and his father.

Ukyou sat on top of the gate to the school watching the couple, a frown marred her pretty face as thoughts of violence popped in her mind. _Why is that hussy still with MY Ranchan? I thought we'd broken things up for good... _She continued glaring at the couple and started thinking things out, _I guess he must be making his decision_ she thought, a part of her happy, another part fearful _no matter if she appears close to him now. It's only cause his "cute" fiance hasn't been around to cook him a nice meal. _She paused and replayed the last thought in her mind back to herself. Somehow it sounded wrong, it seemed silly, she felt deep inside that it was time to confront them directly and find out the final answer once and for all. _It's gonna have to end now. _she thought, a more serious and determined look coming across her features.

With that thought she sighed, hopped off the fence and began walking towards the couple in question.

* * *

In the jungles of Japan a panda and a long haired man ran like their lives depended on it. In their minds their lives _did_ depend on it. It'd been one week since the old ghoul and the pervert had dragged them away from Soun's beautiful comfortable home, where they got fed normally, and so far the training was horrendous! They days had been long, rough, and very very draining. The very day they'd gotten there the training had instantly gone to insane levels. First Cologne and Happosai had found a lot of giant boulders and a small mountain.

In the mornings Genma and Soun would have to roll the boulders up the mountain one by one. At first the task seemed pretty daunting, but not alltogether horrible. Then they found out they had to roll up 299 more stones. Around early evening when the exhausted men finally got the last boulder to the top of the small mountain they'd each been given a small steam bun to eat and sent back down the hill with a boulder hot on their heels. Their task at the bottom was seemingly simple, they had to sit at the bottom and wait for a boulder to come crashing down at them, then they had to shove it away into the river basin to build a dam.

After about ten boulders each Happosai came down from the top of the mountain and spent five minutes beating them senseless. He then explained that their bodies could not come into contact with the boulders, they had to use ki to gently manuever the boulders into place. Of course six days later neither of the men had been able to successfully perform the feat. Late into the night when they finally finished all of the boulders they were allowed to eat a very small bowl of ramen that Cologne would prepare for them then they would get five hours of sleep before waking up to repeat the task. When Happosai announced that morning that him and Cologne had to go get more supplies Genma and Soun saw a door of opportunity open and bolted the minute the ancients were out of sight.

* * *

Standing on a high cliff looking down at the two running men the two ancients chuckled. Of course it was planned for the men to run, why the hell else would Happosai _and _Colonge have to go buy supplies? Each of them was strong enough individually to have no problem bringing back anything they needed.

"Ready for phase two?" Colonge asked, looking down at the running men with eyes filled with amusement.

"Let's do it."

With that both elders started hopping down the cliff, bouncing off rock formations and into the trees, and gaining on the fleeing men very rapidly.

"Happo fire burst!" Happosai shouted as he launched one of his bombs after the men. The bomb landed between the two men, who only had time to look at each other, and a giant sweatdrop formed on the back of each mans head. For just a moment they thought they may have gotten lucky, maybe the old man threw a dud! Then... **_BOOM!_**

As the bomb had been between the men they each went flying in a different direction, on the ground each body was persued by one of the elders. The day Happosai had shown up at the Nekohanten after speaking to Kasumi the two elders had gone into serious planning. They'd spoken to various contacts of their own and found out that the chaos always threatening to consume Nerima and it's inhabitants was about to reach it's peak. They both understood that Nerima itself had a somewhat... supernatural essense about it that drew in the unusual. The supernatural level of Nerima was going to reach its peak in roughly a years time, according to the calculations of the two grand masters. It had taken a lot of work but they had looked at historic records and found a sort of algorithm that corresponded with energy fluxes, and strange happenings in Nerima dating back as far as any written history they could get their hands on would go. It didn't help matters any that the incident on the train with Ranma and Akane had drawn the Servants of Izanagi's eyes to Nerima. Unfortunately the "Servant's" were rather well-connected and both elders knew that it would only be a matter of time before they decided to personally investigate Nerima and its strange energy. Both just hoped with all hope that the League of Darkness would not get involved..

* * *

Akane and Ranma were just getting up to return to classes when both martial artists suddenly became alert and back-flipped into the air, simultaneously, just avoiding the spatulas that stuck into the ground where they had been mere milliseconds before.

"You knew you'd have to face me eventually Akane," Ukyo said in her sweet voice "I'm not just gonna let you run off with my Ran-chan and not say something!"

"He's not a possesion!" Akane shouted back furiously

Ukyo paid her words no heed as she launched another volley of spatulas from her bandoleer at Akane, who as before, jumped out of the way.

"And you're gonna have to do better than that!"

Ranma was torn, he wanted to stop the fight, but a big part of him knew that not only was this Akane's fight, but that as a student taking her martial arts seriously, sometimes she just had to fight her own fights. With that thought he hopped high up into a tree where he could watch without becoming involved. "Good luck!" He shouted down, smiling at Akane.

Akane, knowing inside that Ranma was addressing her, even though he didn't say it, smiled and prepared herself metally for the fight.

* * *

Ryouga and Kuno had made it to land, the latter having learned more about Jusenkyo curses, and the former learning quite a bit about sailing. Sadly even with all Kuno's instruction, Ryouga still couldn't get navigation. Kuno rarely spoke with any Shakespearian dialect anymore, his time at the sea seemed to have stabled his mind at least a little.

"Do you know how to get to this place Kuno?"

"Sadly, I have never been to China before."

"How the hell are we supposed to find it then? I'm no good at maps as it is, and this one seems vague even for you."

"You forget, my cursed brother, that I have substantial wealth, we shall find someone to help us."

With that they set about finding a tour guide, they soon did, although neither of them knew it he charged them more than he usually charged new students to the temple. And within a few hours time they, along with several men, set forward into the Chinese wilderness. Their destination was the Qinling mountains where the Shaolin training temple is located.

* * *

Most fighters would have found it easy to let their guard down around Ukyo. Most fighters would see a cute girl who was a great cook and dedicated to her food. Most wouldn't have suspected how much of a deadly weapon was hidden beneath the cute sheath on the exterior. Most people would have tasted her food, seen her dedication in the kitchen, and known then that she was too dedicated to food to have time for martial arts. Fortunately Akane was not most people, and knew better than to believe Ukyo was anythign but a formidable opponent.

"Looks like my Ran-chan might have taught you a trick or two" Ukyo said with a grin on her face "but let's see how you deal with... this!" she shouted throwing a tempura flash at Akane. The gunpowder and tempura flakes exploded right in Akane's face blinding her for a few seconds as Ukyo closed the distance going in for a powerful uppercut, hoping to finish the fight quickly.

Fortunately Akane's heightened sixth sense kicked in at the last moment and she was able to evade, lashing out with a kick that Ukyo jumped over. As Akane rubbed at her eyes, trying to get everything out so she could see again, Ukyo ran back in, this time with one of her Yakisoba ropes in hand she attacked again. She'd already attatched one end of her rope to a tree while Akane was distracted, and had the other end in her hand as she ran around her opponent setting up loops which on her final lap she pulled closed forcing them to close in on Akane, pinning her arms against her sides.

"Aaaaaahhhh!" Akane screamed as she fell onto her side, pathetically struggling against the ropes. After a few seconds her body stopped rocking and it almost seemed like she gave up to the casual observer. An astute observer on the other hand would have seen that her face was now scrunched up in concentration.

"What do you say Ran-chan" Ukyo said glancing up at Ranma "I had no problem with your student, now how would you like to go on a date with your _cute _fiance?"

"My student might be more of a problem than you thought she was." Ranma replied, staring at the spot where Akane was still tied up.

Those who knew what to look for could see the aura building up around Akane, and knew what was about to happen even though she was laying still, those people move back a few inches.

"Yaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!" Akane shouted triumphantly as the ropes burst off of her, flinging Yakisoba into the crowd.

"Look Ukyo" Akane started, "I think I'd love to have you as a friend, you've always been someone I could see myself getting along with."

Without a further word Akane charged at Ukyo, when Ukyo started dodging Akane went into one of the katas using the moves to draw Ukyo into a pattern, she then switched the pattern and stopped her front kick midstride switching into a longer reaching side kick. The vicious kick landed hard, and sent Ukyo flying back into a tree where she impacted with a "Whoomph!" as the breath was knocked out of her.

"I'd love to be your friend, but I refuse to continue sharing my fiance with you!" Akane finished launching into another volley of attacks.

_Wow_ Ukyo thought, _Ranma **has** been training her._ Ukyo was only able to block a few of Akane's attacks and realized she'd have to try some different tactics. Throwing a few flour bombs at Akane she disappeared into the white powder as it spread into the air, obscuring her from Akane's view. Using Akane's temporary inability to strike her Ukyo threw some of her Adhesive Batter at Akane, successfully pinning her to the ground. Only one of Akane's arms was pinned to the ground however, and she stood, flexing her arm as hard as possible trying to pull up the eart if necesarry to get her hand off the ground. While she was distracted Ukyo struck. Finally pulling her oversized spatula from her back she slammed it onto the top of Akane's head, Akane seemed dazed a moment, then went back to her task of trying to free her arm. Uyo struck again, same results. In an almost comedic way Ukyo jumped on Akane's back **_Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham!_**

Even the sound of Ukyo's spatula slamming into Akane's head sounded very violent, as for Akane, she was getting dizzy, and blood from her now bleeding hed was starting to obscure her vision. She knew she had to concentrate just a little more and... She felt it, "AAAAAAHHHHHH! Knock it off!" She shouted as she jumped into the air, the gourmet cement shattering into debris.

Now very irritated she charged at Ukyo who stood unable to move in her shock from Akane still being able to stand. "Katchu Tenshin Amaguriken!" Akane shouted as her fists drilled into Ukyos vulnerable spots. With the final punch Ukyo was knocked back several feet, the momentum dragging her a few feet back even on her knees, causing her pants to tear at the knees and skinning her knees badly in the process.

Wincing Ukyo stood up after the attack, and she got a determined look on her face. She started to charge, then had to pause a second as she started coughing, she looked at her hand and saw the red blood. She wiped it off on her pants leaving a red streak and charged at Akane again this time launcing one of her large special sized Okonomiyaki at Akane, who after seeing the blood was rooted to the spot and therefore caught in Ukyo's desperate final attack.

With Akane caught up in the Okonomiyaki, Ukyo started hitting her with the giant spatula again. **_Wham! Wham!_**

Akane was starting to get dizzy, she knew she had to get free and finish this quick, she just hoped she didn't hurt Ukyo too much in trying a new move out. Akane used everything Ranma had been teaching her the previous weeks, especially the emotional control. She thought about cold, till she could feel her very aura itself getting cold. Up in the tree Ranma could sense the drop in tempurature and watched the battle attentively hoping Akane was doing what he thought she was. _**Wham! Wham! Wham!**_

As the spatula was about to come down again Akane's eyes snapped open "Hiryu Shoten Ha! Revised! Attack of the trapped dragon!". With that the tell tale Hiryu Shoten Ha tornado burst from Akane's prone body and caught Ukyo launching her high into the air. She landed next to Akane with very hard, and could vaguely make out Akane and Ranma looking down with her in concern as the world faded to black.

* * *

Thanks for taking the time to read, please review and I'll try to find time to update again soon. :)


	9. Chapter 9

You know the drill, I own none of this. If I did I'd actually have money!

Anyway, please read.. enjoy and review! Thank you! :)

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Ranma wandered through a seemingly endless field of knee deep grass, he looked around, everything seemed strange and surreal. The grass seemed unnaturally beautiful seeming to glow from the light of the moon. Then Ranma noticed the sky was wierd, for one thing the moon seemed unusually large, and instead of looking white it was giving off a blue hue. There was a cascade of beautiful light that shone in many colors streaking through the sky, but Ranma knew that he didn't live far enough north for a Northern Lights experience. Besides, from the pictures he'd seen, the Aurora Borealis was usually green and blue, where as these lights were shining in all the colors imaginable. He was so focused on the beautiful lights he almost didn't notice that even the stars were different. He could not recognize any constellations, and there were several stars that seemed unusually close that were also strange colors. It took about ten minutes for Ranma to tear his eyes from the heavenly beauty of the majestic sky. Ranma at that point wished with all his heart that he was poet, or even better, a painter, so he could share this beauty with the world. Focusing back on the field he saw there was only a single tree in the hole field. A cherry blossom tree of unusual height stood proudly in the middle of the field, towering over the grasses majestically for all appearances trying to touch the sky itself.

The tree was blossoming, somewhere in his mind he knew that the cherry blossom trees in Nerima had already blossomed in April. "It's always just as breathtaking, no matter how many times you see it." Came a voice from up in the branches.

Startled, Ranma jumped back, his eyes scanning the tree more carefully, and focusing in on the direction the voice came from.

"Relax, I'm not gonna hurt you."

As the voice spoke to him Ranma felt a sense of peace well up from somewhere deep inside. His eyes finally located the speaker. He appeared to be a young boy, no older than 16 at the most. He had shoulder length black hair that seemed to flow with his movements in an almost unnatural way. The boy's eyes seemed to give off a jade glow from up in the branches, and he had an easy smile that showed teeth so perfect that any dentist would be proud. He seemed... beautiful. Ranma remembered the discussions in his English classes on the Lord of the Rings and the person in front of him seemed to have the same unnatural beaty as an elf.

"Am I dreaming?" Ranma asked, looking at the boy.

The boy looked thoughtful for a moment, "No," he dropped from the branches of the tree and the air seemd to catch him in front of Ranma, and he hovered a few feet away from the martial artist, his legs crossed.

"This isn't a dream, because your mind isn't making this up. You're in spirit form right now, I brought you here, you have some very important tasks ahead of you. If you need to ask any questions please ask them right away so we can clear up the air."

"What the hell is spirit form, who are you, how the hell do I know you're not lying?"

Almost as soon as he said the words he felt stupid for some reason, then he knew. He could **_feel_**the power radiating off of the boy. He'd never been very religious, but it just felt, very strongly, like he was standing in the presence of a god. Looking into the boy's eyes he could see a knowledge and wisdom that spanned ages, that defied time, space and reality. He blinked and shook his head.

"You'll know I'm not lying soon enough young stallion, I'll be telling you a few things, and those things are going to happen. As to who I am, that's not very important to this conversation," he held up a hand to stall any protests, "it's not that I don't want to tell you, it's that what I'm going to tell you will be hard enough for you to believe, without having the added stress of dealing with the reality of my identity."

Ranma pondered the words for a second, the feeling of peace and serenity still enveloping him with the boy's presence. He sighed and nodded once sharply, holding up his hand in a gesture for the boy to continue.

"You may call me Eriond."

As the boy spoke his name Ranma heard what sounded like a bell chime once in his head.

"As to spirit form, I guess the best way to explain it to you is that I placed your consciousness inside of your chi and brought it to me. It's more complex than that, but I'll be explaining several things to you that will make the reality clear to you in time. This will be but the first of our meetings, I have watched you closely Ranma and you are destined for great things. The lives of many will depend on you, your tasks will not be easy. There will be many hardships, tragedies, sorrow. And I will need you to be strong Ranma. You will need to be a leader in the times of darkness headed your way. With or without you Nerima was in severe danger anyway, I wanted to make that clear first."

The boy waved his hand, a table and two very comfortable looking chairs appeared, a teapot also appeared, as did two cups floating above the table. A twitch of Eriond's pinky had the teapot pouring tea into each of the cups, one of the cups floated over to Ranma.

"Sit, please and drink. It should be perfectly suited to your taste."

Ranma took a sip and was surprised by just how true that statement was.

"Now I'm sure you've noticed Nerima draws in some.. strange people and events." Ranma nodded, and his stomach gave a low rumble, "How do you still have such an appetite in spirit form?" Eriond asked amused, a grin gracing his face. He snapped his fingers and a plate full of chocolate chip cookies appeared in front of Ranma, who naturally started devouring them wholeheartedly.

"As I was saying, Nerima draws in strangeness. It's a chaos magnet, even more than you are. And boy are you up there for being a magnet for chaos. But Nerima exceeds you by far. For ages that land has drawn strangness. You see every 10,000 years Nerima erupts with magical energy. This energy only flows from a few distinct spots in Nerima, but it is powerful enough that people who know where to be can absorb that magic into themselves and change their very essence. Recently you've drawn attention to yourself from groups interested in this power. And believe me, neither of these groups has good intentions. The Servants intend to summon Izanagi, who will basically be death brought to life."

Eriond took a drink of his tea.

"Izanagi was not really a god," Eriond looked almost as if he felt sorry for Izanagi "he's a fallen angel. He became a demon long long ago, and has become a demon lord, in command of armies of demons." The expression on Eriond's face was grim as he said this, the feeling of peace and serenity was still there, but he could feel the depression of the eternal boy in front of him. "The servants of Izanagi intend to bring him back, they have long ago bound themselves to Izanagi, and will sacrifice anyone, and anything to bring him into power."

Ranma wouldn't have interrupted if he could. Physically he could still interrupt if he wanted to. But he was caught up in the story Eriond was weaving and wanting to hear more.

"I have to be the deliverer of bad news." Eriond looked apologetically at Ranma "Fate has chosen you as one of her vessels to basically save the world. No pressure," Eriond said jokingly "but you may even eventually be responsible for saving existance as a whole."

* * *

Ukyo woke up blearily, moaning as she stretched her limbs, pain shooting through different parts of her body. Opening her eyes she took in her surroundings. A clock on the wall, a T.V. placed on a convenient hanger on the wall for her to see from her bed, white shets, a white wall, two chairs and a woman who seemed to be waking up in a chair. _Beep. Beep. Beep. _A machine behind her kept beeping quietly. She looked at herself, there was a cast on her left leg, which was raised into the air in a sling that hung from the ceiling. She recognized the heartbeat monitor on her index finger, and an I.V. that was feeding Saline into her left arm. As her consciousness got a hold of her waves of pain soared through her body, she would have screamed if she were just a regular girl, but she was a warrior. But even with her superior pain tolerance she moaned loudly. Vaguely she noticed the woman rush out of the chair and push a button on the wall. Ukyo started trashing in pain on the bed.

A nursed rushed into the room and lifted the I.V. tube, finding the spot where it branched off and injected a liquid into it. Almost immediatly Ukyo felt it, a rushing feeling and a slight tingling feeling and the pain went away. Although the rushing feeling and the tingling feeling remained. The nurse not saying anyting, grabbed a couple alchohol swabs, cleaned everything, deposited the needles in the safety disposing box and left the room. A euphoric feeling rushed over Ukyo, she looked around the room again and this time she recognized the woman who'd been sitting in the chair.

"Nodoka!"

* * *

Ranma was awake far earlier than usual that morning. Strangely enough the memories of the dream did not fade, not even in the slightest when he woke up. Then again the man _had _told him he was not dreaming. As Ranma thought about it, somehow he knew, he didn't know how, he just **_knew_ **that the boy, Eriond, had been telling him the truth. He shivered at the implications, and decided to take his mind off of it, he walked out onto the balcony and hopped down into the backyard.

On landing Ranma was again drawn into a trance by witnessing something beautiful. He'd never witnessed Kasumi practicing any form of martial arts and usually just assumed she didn't have interest in the martial arts. Now he knew that he was wrong. He realized that Kasumi had fooled everyone. As he thought about it, he almost thought it should have been kind of obvious. Kasumi did always move with an almost unnatural grace.

As he watched Kasumi moved through several different forms of Tai Chi, and moved into some kata's that he knew weren't a part of regular Tai Chi moves. He had a feeling that Kasumi had invented these moves on her own. Then her hands started glowing, giving off a light blue hue as she finished her kata.

"Good morning Ranma"

Ranma's eyes widened in surprise, "You knew I was watching?"

"Naturally," said Kasumi, a strange, almost mischivious smile on her face. "I knew this day would come eventually."

"Can you teach me how to control the chi like that? I always thought what I could do was pretty amazing, but you make the chi control look so natural and easy."

Kasumi nodded looking towards the sky, where a brown owl flew away from the house, carrying a small object in it's talons.

"First let me tell you a few things about my mother."

Ranma followed Kasumi as she lead the way back into the house and into the kitchen, where Ranma listened raptly as Kasumi spoke, and helped her prepare breakfast for the rest of the slumbering household.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I didn't own it yesterday, nor do I own any of it today. I still don't have much money, nor will I make any money from this. Again much thanks to the respective owners for creating such wonderful characters.

This is a short chapter, I just got a new job at a daycare and haven't had any free time. Computer is still broken, I got a hour of free time at the library which is why I'm able to post this today. Please R&R :)

* * *

"We need to stop somewhere for some food!" Ryoga said, looking around. They were now in Shanghai, Ryoga knew this because he had just passed a sign that said **Welcome to Shanghai** in bold red calligraphy. In the two weeks since they'd arrived they'd had a hard time finding someone who knew anything about the temple, even with Kuno's wealth. They'd finally found rumors of an old man who lived in Shanghai who could guide them to the temple. They had to find a particular night club, club Bewan or something like that. They were searching for a man named Wan Li.

Kuno strolled down the middle of the sidewalkhis head held high looking for the name of the club as it had been written on the piece of paper. He squatted next to a homeless man who was sitting on a newspaper and dropped a large amount of money in the jar. The jar was not clear so the man would have no idea how good his fortune was till later that night when he counted his money. "Excuse me sir, but would you mind pointing us to Honan Road?"

The man looked at Kuno with confusion on his face, smacking his forehead Ryoga got one of the translation guides and repeated the question to the man. The mans eyes lit up with recognition and he pointed several directions while rattling off instructions to Ryoga. After several more attempts about five minutes later Ryoga had the mans directions written on a piece of paper which he immediately handed to Kuno. They'd worked this out in the time they'd been here. Due to all his traveling, Ryoga was pretty fair at Chinese, although he did need a translation guide for a few words here and there that he didn't feel confident with. The system worked though, Ryoga would get the directions and Kuno would take them there.

As they turned on to Honan Road Kuno's eyes lit up as he recognized the blue lit neon sign from the picture. "This is it! Come my cursed pig friend, let us go inside, dine and meet out guide!"

Not saying anything Ryoga just followed the excited swordsman into the building.

"Welcome to Club Obi-Wan," said a beautiful lady standing by the door in a velvet dress, "my name is Wing. If you'll follow me I'll get you seated." she smiled at them, causing Ryoga to blush furiously.

A singing voice trailed out from the main room

"_Yi wang si-i wa ye kan duo  
Xin li bian yao la jing bao jin tian zhi  
Dao"_

* * *

After Ukyo had woken up Nodoka had spoken to her for a long time. Nodoka didn't blame Ukyo for the drama she caused around her son, Nodoka blamed Genma. And she knew Ukyo had every right to be mad at her husband for stealing the Okonomiyaki cart. She had long since left, and Ukyo was alone pondering the option that Nodoka had presented to her.

They'd both realized that there was no way Ranma was going to be pulled away from Akane, not that either really wanted to do that as they knew it would crush him. Ukyo had always wanted Ranma to choose her by himself anyway, sure she'd try to bribe him with food and trying to look cute, but she didn't want love potions involved or memory erasing like Shampoo had done in the past.

Now she knew that Ranma had eyes only for Akane, Nodoka had explained very clearly how her son had been behaving the last few weeks. Ukyo had cried for a while, but now the time for tears was done and it was time to focus on making a decision. Adoption. The word was stuck in her head now, Nodoka had proposed to adopt Ukyo formally into the Saotome family. Ukyo realized that meant she'd have no more shots at a romantic relationship with Ranma, of course it looked like that wasn't going to be a possibility anyway. Her father had passed away, Nodoka had made inquiries and found that out. Strangely it didn't make Ukyo terribly upset, she was a little saddened, but she hadn't seen him since she'd set out on her pursuit of Ranma.

Nodoka had told her that if she was adopted into the family she would be trained in the Saotome style martial arts, and even be able to use the name. She pondered it for a second, Saotome Anything Goes Okonomiyaki. In this town it would probably increase her business by a lot. Sure a lot of people already knew Ucchan's, but the Saotome name was well known throughout all Japan. Still lacking a firm answer she laid her head back down on her pillow and decided to sleep on it.

* * *

Back at Club Oni Wan Kuno and Ryoga waited on their guide, they'd been told his name was Wan Li and he was the owner of the club. Kuno was eating Fuliji Poached Chicken while Ryoga was working on his Maofeng Tea Smoked Fish, and Cilantro Beef. Niether had ever heard of these dishes before, but they were very delicious. They were so engrossed in their food they almost didn't notice two old men walking to their table. One of the men was asian, he wore a long sleeved safari shirt that was unbuttoned with a plain white tee underneath, and a New York Yankees hat on his head. The other man looked to be American and wore an eye patch over his right eye, he carried a walking cane but still held himself up strongly. He also wore a safari shirt which was buttoned most of the way but had a few buttons unbuttoned towards the top. He wore a tall fedora on his head and dark rimmed glasses, on his waist he wore a WW1 medic pouch and on the other side a large bullwhip next to which sat a holstered revolver.

"Oh that smells wonderful" said the old man with the eye patch as he sat down with the two martial artists, "it reminds me of when I was still a young man, I was in this very club and they were singing this same song. I was on the search for the elusive Peacocks Eye, a diamond almost the size of my fist!" the old man said lifting up his balled up fist. "Now shorty here was just a kid at the time, I met him at the Gung Ho Bar he was trying to pick my pocket." The old man stopped for just a second to order a drink. "I adopted the kid and he introduced me to his friend, Wu Han, the three of us traveled the Himalayas together at one point we were assaulted by nomadic thieves during a yak ride, but far more interesting is the time after we first lost the Peacocks Eye and ended up in India, in search of the Sankaara stones, and fortune and glory..." The other old man just laughed and sat down next to the man with the eye patch as he launched into a story of their shared adventure.

* * *

In Nerima Kasumi was in the dojo with Ranma and Akane teaching them Tai Chi. "The difference is that while you guys mainly focus on the physical aspect of martial arts, Tai Chi is the internal, spiritual aspect. Don't worry about putting a lot of power into your moves, nor a lot of speed. While you're doing these movements concentrate on your breathing, feel the energy within yourself and in the world around you." Kasumi said as she moved from pose to pose, with Akane and Ranma both mirroring her moves.

"You two are both very advanced martial artists, but it may still take some time for you guys to master harnessing chi through these movements. There are only a few kata's, but the movement isn't as important in this martial arts as your focus is."

The trio practiced for two full hours, after practice Akane approached Kasumi, "How come you've never taught me this before?" she asked looking hurt.

"I tried to once when you were younger Akane, a few months after mother passed away." She motioned for Akane to follow her and walked towards Kimiko's shrine. "Before Ranma came you were so angry, I tried to teach you Tai Chi to help you calm and center yourself several times and you always got frustrated with the slow pace and stomped out on me to focus on breaking bricks."

Akane embarrassed suddenly had memories pop into her head of her childish behaviour that her mind had chosen to suppress.

"I'm sorry Kasumi."

"Please, don't worry about it." Kasumi said with a gentle smile, "Now let's go talk to mom for a while shall we?"


End file.
